Founding Gods Inventing Nations

Author : William F. McCants
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691151482
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.89/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Founding Gods, Inventing Nations written by William F. McCants and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the dawn of writing in Sumer to the sunset of the Islamic empire, Founding Gods, Inventing Nations traces four thousand years of speculation on the origins of civilization. Investigating a vast range of primary sources, some of which are translated here for the first time, and focusing on the dynamic influence of the Greek, Roman, and Arab conquests of the Near East, William McCants looks at the ways the conquerors and those they conquered reshaped their myths of civilization's origins in response to the social and political consequences of empire. The Greek and Roman conquests brought with them a learned culture that competed with that of native elites. The conquering Arabs, in contrast, had no learned culture, which led to three hundred years of Muslim competition over the cultural orientation of Islam, a contest reflected in the culture myths of that time. What we know today as Islamic culture is the product of this contest, whose protagonists drew heavily on the lore of non-Arab and pagan antiquity. McCants argues that authors in all three periods did not write about civilization's origins solely out of pure antiquarian interest--they also sought to address the social and political tensions of the day. The strategies they employed and the postcolonial dilemmas they confronted provide invaluable context for understanding how authors today use myth and history to locate themselves in the confusing aftermath of empire.

Author : Laura R. Ford
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108187722
Total Pages : 443 pages
Book Rating : 4.25/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Intellectual Property of Nations written by Laura R. Ford and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-20 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on macro-historical sociological theories, this book traces the development of intellectual property as a new type of legal property in the modern nation-state system. In its current form, intellectual property is considered part of an infrastructure of state power that incentivizes innovation, creativity, and scientific development, all engines of economic growth. To show how this infrastructure of power emerged, Laura Ford follows macro-historical social theorists, including Michael Mann and Max Weber, back to antiquity, revealing that legal instruments very similar to modern intellectual property have existed for a long time and have also been deployed for similar purposes. Using comparative and historical evidence, this groundbreaking work reflects on the role of intellectual property in our contemporary political communities and societies; on the close relationship between law and religion; and on the extent to which law's obliging force depends on ancient, written traditions.

Author : Annette Yoshiko Reed
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 052111943X
Total Pages : 365 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Demons, Angels, and Writing in Ancient Judaism written by Annette Yoshiko Reed and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-16 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new explanation of the beginnings of Jewish angelology and demonology, drawing on non-canonical writings and Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls.

Author : Gore Vidal
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300127928
Total Pages : 166 pages
Book Rating : 4.28/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Inventing a Nation written by Gore Vidal and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This New York Times bestseller offers “an unblinking view of our national heroes by one who cherishes them, warts and all” (New York Review of Books). In Inventing a Nation, National Book Award winner Gore Vidal transports the reader into the minds, the living rooms (and bedrooms), the convention halls, and the salons of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and others. We come to know these men, through Vidal’s splendid prose, in ways we have not up to now—their opinions of each other, their worries about money, their concerns about creating a viable democracy. Vidal brings them to life at the key moments of decision in the birthing of our nation. He also illuminates the force and weight of the documents they wrote, the speeches they delivered, and the institutions of government by which we still live. More than two centuries later, America is still largely governed by the ideas championed by this triumvirate. The author of Burr and Lincoln, one of the master stylists of American literature and most acute observers of American life, turns his immense literary and historiographic talent to a portrait of these formidable men

Author : John C. Reeves
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198718411
Total Pages : 412 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages written by John C. Reeves and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides a comprehensive set of core references to '1 Enoch'. It shows that the rich afterlives of Enochic texts and traditions can be studied more thoroughly by scholars of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity as well as by scholars of late antique and medieval religions.

Author : Ulla Tervahauta
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004344934
Total Pages : 389 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Women and Knowledge in Early Christianity written by Ulla Tervahauta and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women and Knowledge in Early Christianity offers a collection of essays that deal with perceptions of wisdom, femaleness, and their interconnections in a wide range of ancient sources, including papyri, Nag Hammadi documents, heresiological accounts and monastic literature.

Author : Seth L. Sanders
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 147986398X
Total Pages : 275 pages
Book Rating : 4.83/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Ancient Jewish Sciences and the History of Knowledge in Second Temple Literature written by Seth L. Sanders and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2014-04-28 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Until very recently, the idea of ancient Jewish sciences would have been considered unacceptable. Since the 1990’s, Early Modern and Medieval Science in Jewish sources has been actively studied, but the consensus was that no real scientific themes could be found in earlier Judaism. This work points them out in detail, and posits a new field of research: the scientific activity evident in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Jewish Pseudepigrapha. The publication of new texts and new analyses of older ones reveals crucial elements that are best illuminated by the history of science, and may have interesting consequences for it. The contributors evaluate these texts in relation to astronomy, astrology and physiognomy, marking the first comprehensive attempt to account for scientific themes in Second Temple Judaism. They investigate the meaning and purpose of scientific explorations in an apocalyptic setting. An appreciation of these topics paves the way to a renewed understanding of the scientific fragments scattered throughout rabbinic literature. The book first places the Jewish material in the ancient context of the Near Eastern and Hellenistic worlds. While the Jewish texts were not on the cutting edge of scientific discovery, they find a meaningful place in the history of science, between Babylonia and Egypt, in the time period between Hipparchus and Ptolemy. The book uses recent advances in method to examine the contacts and networks of Jewish scholars in their ancient setting. Second, the essays here tackle the problematic concept of a national scientific tradition. Although science is nowadays often conceived as universal, the historiography of ancient Jewish sciences demonstrates the importance of seeing the development of science in a local context. The book explores the tension between the hegemony of central scientific traditions and local scientific enterprises, showing the relevance of ancient data to contemporary postcolonial historiography of science. Finally, philosophical questions of the demarcation of science are addressed in a way that can advance the discussion of related ancient materials. Online edition available as part of the NYU Library's Ancient World Digital Library and in partnership with the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW).

Author : Jorge Tomás García
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000574180
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Iconotropy and Cult Images from the Ancient to Modern World written by Jorge Tomás García and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-04-06 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book examines the process of symbolic and material alteration of religious images in antiquity, the middle ages and the modern period. The process by which the form and meaning of images are modified and adapted for a new context is defined by a large number of spiritual, religious, artistic, geographical or historical circumstances. This book provides a defined theoretical framework for these symbolic and material alterations based on the concept of iconotropy; that is, the way in which images change and/or alter their meaning. Iconotropy is a key concept in religious history, particularly for periods in which religious changes, often turbulent, took place. In addition, the iconotropic process of appropriating cult images brought with it changes in the materiality of those images. Numerous accounts from antiquity, the middle ages and the modern period detail how cult images were involved in such processes of misinterpretation, both symbolically and materially. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual culture and religious history.

Author : Alberto Bernabé Pajares
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3658321849
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Narrating the Beginnings written by Alberto Bernabé Pajares and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-04-02 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present book is a compilation of studies on narratives of mythical origins in different cultures written by outstanding specialists. It aims to provide a broad view on creation-myths from different times and areas of the world with a particular focus on how these texts contributed to the conception of the past as “universal history”, as a common origin of mankind or as the great opening, the theatrum mundi. On the other hand, the purpose of this book is to study the phenomenon from a typological point of view, analyzing the specific characteristics of this particular type of texts, rather than finding influences between the different cultures in the genesis of these narratives.

Author : Daniel O'Brien
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030741427
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Muslim Heroes on Screen written by Daniel O'Brien and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If films drawing on Middle East tropes often highlight white Westerners, figures such as Sinbad and the Thief of Bagdad embody a counter-tradition of protagonists, derived from Islamic folklore and history, who are portrayed as ‘Other’ to Western audiences. In Muslim Heroes on Screen, Daniel O’Brien explores the depiction of these characters in Euro-American cinema from the silent era to the present day. Far from being mere racial masquerade, these screen portrayals are more complex and nuanced than is generally allowed, not least in terms of the shifting concepts and assumptions that inform their Muslim identity. Using films ranging from Douglas Fairbanks’ The Thief of Bagdad, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, El Cid, Kingdom of Heaven and The Message to The Wind and the Lion, O’Brien considers how the representational strategies of Western filmmakers may transcend such Muslim stereotypes as fanatic antagonists or passive victims. These figures possess a cultural significance which cannot be fully appreciated by Euro-American audiences without reference to their distinction as Muslim heroes and the implications and resonances of an Islamicized protagonist.